Eighteen thousand fighting men were thus directly opposed to the progress of the enemy, and the fourth division quartered near Lesaca was still disposable. From this body a Portuguese brigade had been detached, to replace Longa on the heights opposite Vera, and to cover the roads leading from the bridge and fords of that place over the flanks of the Pena de Haya. Meanwhile the British brigades of the division were stationed up the mountain, close under the foundry of San Antonio and commanding the intersection of the roads coming from Vera and Lesaca; thus furnishing a reserve to the Portuguese brigade to Longa and to Freyre, they tied the whole together. The Portuguese brigade was however somewhat exposed, and too weak to guard the enormous slopes on which it was placed, wherefore Wellington drew general Inglis’s brigade of the seventh division from Echallar to reinforce it, and even then the flanks of the Pena de Haya were so rough and vast that the troops seemed sprinkled here and there with little coherence. The English general aware that his positions were too extensive had commenced the construction of several large redoubts on commanding points of the mountain, and had traced out a second fortified camp on a strong range of heights, which immediately in front of Oyarzun connected the Haya with the Jaizquibel, but these works were unfinished. [Sidenote: Soult’s Official Correspondence, MSS.] During the night of the 30th Soult garnished with artillery all the points commanding the fords of Biriatu, the descent to the broken bridge and the banks below it, called the Bas de Behobia. This was partly to cover the passage of the fords and the formation of his bridges, partly to stop gun-boats coming up to molest the troops in crossing, and in this view also he spread Casa Palacio’s brigade of Joseph’s Spanish guards along the river as far down as Andaya, fronting Fuenterabia. [Sidenote: Plan 5.] General Reille, commanding La Martiniere’s, Maucune’s, and Villatte’s divisions, directed the attack. His orders were to storm the camp of San Marcial, and leaving there a strong reserve to keep in check any reinforcement coming from the side of Vera or descending from the Pena de Haya, to drive the allies with the remainder of his force from ridge to ridge, until he gained that flank of the great mountain which descends upon Oyarzun. The royal road being thus opened, Foy’s division with the cavalry and artillery in one column, was to cross by bridges to be laid during the attack on San Marcial. And it was Soult’s intention under any circumstances to retain this last-named ridge, and to fortify it as a bridge-head with a view to subsequent operations.